The term is also used to denominate the outermost cardboard covering of a record, i.e. the record jacket or album jacket.
The record jacket is extensively used to design and market a recording, as well as to additionally display general information on the record as artist name, titles list, title length etc.
if no opening presents a readable label.
Sleeves were originally printed on simple cardboard.
British manufacturers Garrod and Lofthouse patented a "wrap around" sleeve design commonly seen on LPs in the 1960s.